Master of the Galaxy 4: Voyage into the Uknown

[viola]

Skaven Colonialism and Militarization
during and before the Solesian War
​

Skaven Ships arrive to what would become New Blight, future Skaven headquarter in the New World​

As the Galaxy was far too occupied with their own internal strife during the Solesian and Australian wars, the Skaven Federation seemingly retired from Galactic politics: little was heard from Skavenblight outside of the usual reports of pirate activity and widespread crime and contraband.

The Skaven apparent withdrawal into inactivity after the bloody Khegiig Conflict (or the "Skaven Triumph over the Man-Things" as it was officially labeled by the Council of Thirteen) however ultimately proved to be just a façade, an attempt to hide the massive expansion of the Federation's fleet and army going on in those years: Skaven militarization in fact would continue unstopped, with numerous shipyards being built in both Skavenblight and Kaekuks, which under the influence of Clan Skurvy would become the true hub of the Federation's naval system in this era.
Furthermore this period saw the start of a vigorous colonial program aimed at carving a true "living space" for the Skaven race into the New Galaxy, with great propaganda efforts from the Council and the Clans alike. The colonial project was largely successful and culminated with the discovery of a substance rather unimaginatively called "Space Honey" (Skaven have never been really good at naming things for marketing), which would become a smashing hit in the Galactic markets back at home. The interest shown by the Council of Thirteen itself into the production and marketing of this Honey would surprise some Galactic analysts, even worrying some of them who thought that there was more than simple greed at works here.

Internally the Council proved to be as brutal as ever: mercilessly crushing all opposing Clans and manipulating the others into doing their will voluntarily, and most of the time without even knowing it. In this period the strength of the Grey Seers grew to be absolute, the victories against the Azeratii and the successes in the colonies certainly helped the Council into cementing their presence within the Skaven's cutthroat society. The Council was now free to move on with their next project for the Skaven race, and maybe the entire Galaxy...

In any case, the post-Khegiig period represented a phase of constant growth and strengthening for the Skaven race, even if rarely with good intentions toward the other peoples of the Galaxy. The reckless colonial projects would soon pollute countless planets in the New Galaxy, while the silent competition with other polities in the Galaxy would result in the successful theft of the schematics of the new Heavy Battleships.
It became slowly clear to anyone that the Skaven apparent inactivity was exactly that, apparent. The Skaven were expanding and waiting, strengthening their position in a Galaxy constantly on the brink of chaos.

Everyone wondered now: what would have been the Skaven's next, inevitable, move?

Image of New Blight an year after the start of Skaven Colonization.
Signs of heavy industrialization and environmental destruction are evident.​

((A little IC I made in little time, also using some stuff that I ended up never using during the game.))

 

[Scrapknight]

The Hwang Administration: An. XI - An. XIII
​

The Republic of Baekdu, towards the tail-end of the Hwang Administration, began to truly feel the effects of the Solesian War. While casualties were relatively low for the Republic compared to the brutal Western Front, and Solesia in particular, wartime rationing and the continued enlistment of men and women into the Army as well as increased terrorist activity in Zikkir prompted more and more anti-war demonstrations across the country. They were mostly fringe events at first, as the great mass of the populace supported the war effort and trusted their Consul. Even some Progressives chose to keep their mouths shut for the sake of unity, which displeased the party's radicals, who continued to demonstrate against the war whenever possible. Even so, the government was in no real danger of losing the war, and the occupation of Zikkir was proceeding smoothly as communist resistance trickled out. The government's largest crisis came after the failure of Operation Olympic, the invasion of the Terran homeworld. Many citizens, thinking that an end to the war was just around the corner, were dissatisfied when that no longer seemed to be the case. The reaction to the news triggered the Wonsan Riots of An. XII, which raged across the city for three days as anti-war protesters clashed with veteran's organizations and even a few gangs affiliated with the National Front. The crisis fixated the government's attention on the issue. At a conference held between the Minister of War, the Minister of Education and several Progressive deputies and activists, a program was agreed to to provide greater benefits and education after the war. The resulting Military Veterans Bill would, in the post-war years, help result in a massive economic boom and expansion of the middle class. Regardless, it quieted down the most vocal of the protesters, as it was coupled with renewed assurances that the end of the war would come soon.

Unlike many cynics predicted, the government was actually telling the truth. In actuality, Operation Olympic was expected to fail, or at least to not decisively end the war on its own. Rather, the intelligence services planned to use the invasion as cover to smuggle Admiral Tomislav Karinsko, who had been under Baekduan protection for the better part of a year, back to his homeworld so he would be able to take control of the country and end the war. Baekduan advisors knew from the the Solesian campaign that an actual invasion of Terran would cost tens of millions of lives or inflict untold atrocity upon Terran civilians - indeed, in all likelihood, it would do both. Faced with a populace tired of war and the prospect of both a brutal invasion and a lengthy, messy and unwelcome occupation, it was instead decided to remake Terran from the inside. As such, the Solesian campaign ended in fall of An. XII, just in time for the election season. Consul Hwang was hailed as a hero, and the population was euphoric as rationing ended, the dead could be mourned and life would return to relative normalcy.

As difficult as the war was, other policy areas proved to be much easier for the Consul to navigate. The Albish embargo was followed by swift condemnation from the Republican League and then the Pan-Galactic Community at large, which followed with their own embargoes over the vocal protests of the Australian government. The Republic was mostly concerned with preventing spillover of the conflict, which was largely successful. However, the refugee crisis was still ongoing, and would play a large part in the public eye in the election. Still, the administration's Albion policy was largely seen as a success, despite the massive refugee camps in Youngha Station in Khakneuth and the "Albiontowns" of refugees and undocumented immigrants popping up across Jayu. The problems therein would have to be dealt with, but they could wait until after the election, given the still-present euphoria over ending the war and domestic concerns once again returning to the forefront.

The An. XIII Elections
​

The elections of An. XIII, unlike the previous two, were something of a foregone conclusion. Consul Hwang was so popular that she was actually drafted by her supporters into running for a second term. She had initially refused, but reconsidered as the war was ending, given the huge surge in popular support. After all, there was no explicit rule against multi-term Consulships, and even the venerable Kim Jayu slipped back into politics as a Deputy in recent years. More importantly, she became convinced that the increasingly strong Progressive movement would cause the Republic to shirk from its international responsibilities, something she could not abide by. Giving up everything that had been won in the course of the Solesian War would be an even worse disaster than not having fought the war in the first place. She won the Liberal nomination at the convention unanimously. Oh Daine chose not to run for the Premiership again, citing personal reasons; many claimed that she was suffering from depression, but no such thing could be proven. Instead, the assembly selected Lee Jinwook, a former banker and a moderate who was seen to be a competent administrator and loyal to Hwang's left-Liberal clique. He would willingly cede most of the stardom in the campaign to Hwang, and tried to portray himself as a voice of reason and able to get past petty partisan conflict in the name of the postwar spirit of unity.

The other parties, on the backfoot, mostly recycled their candidates from the last election. Kim Jongnam, one of the progenitors of Radical Syndicalism, further increased his stranglehold over the Baekduan Section of the Worker's International, or NGB. He managed to do one better on his previous efforts of locking up the Consul nomination, not only retaking it but putting a stooge of his in the position of "Assembly Leader" (he, of course, kept the title of General Secretary of the NGB for himself.) Syndicalist marches in the street and increasingly violent rhetoric drove further wedges between Radicals and the Republican consensus, but Syndicalism as an idea was still viewed fairly positive by the working class populace, if not by that name. Many Orthodox Syndicalists, dissatisfied with Kim's increasingly authoritarian control of the party, jumped ship to the Democratic Progressive Party, which in turn further increased the Radical stronghold on the Syndicalist movement proper. All this suited Kim just fine; he was, at the time, looking for a hardened core of loyal party cadres rather than a mass movement that could win an election. What he would plan to do next was, of course, known only to him.

The Progressives, of course, returned Kim Yoori to the party leadership and chose her close ally Kim Bora for the Consular nomination. While Hwang's personal popularity made her virtually impossible to stop, the Progressives reckoned that they could get a large enough section of the Assembly to prevent the Liberals from forming a government at the very least, and considering the relative disarray of the other parties they would be able to form it themselves if such a thing were to occur. Yoori was still popular among the anti-war electorate due to her strident opposition to the campaign, even if one of the large sources of anger had been mollified. The Wonsan Riots were still fresh in the public's memory, and the case could be made that pacifist leadership was necessary to prevent war from breaking out again. Meanwhile, the Labor Party was coming apart at the seams. Gwak Minseon and the left wing of the party finally had enough and left in early An. XII, forming the Socialist Party of Baekdu that would keep a close alliance with the Progressives. While Park Youngha, Labor Party leader, still had the majority of Labor deputies on his side, a rash of defections to the Liberals threatened to undermine his party to the point of irrelevance. In response, Park moved the party even further right to the point where it could not even rightfully be called social democratic; social liberal thoughts prevailed, and only the most pedantic of differences separated Labor from the left wing of the Liberal Party. To further underscore the point, Park endorsed Hwang for Consul and begged, borrowed and stole enough votes to ensure that he was still the unchallenged leader of the party. By this point, Park had taken up something of a blind hatred for Gwak and everything she stood for, ruling out any alliance with the Socialists or anything to their left. Thus, though the stubborn Park would be loath to admit it, he had turned his party into little more than an appendage of the Liberal Party. Labor even abandoned its old cockade and adopted a new, orange logo to underscore the change.

The Rural Party, coming out of a successful coalition agreement with the Liberals, was fairly confident. Not wanting to rock the boat, the party also endorsed Hwang for Consul and quietly re-elected the strident conservative Min Hyeongjong as leader. The Rurals, however, were rather uncertain going into the polls. The Liberals had not renewed the coalition agreement before the election, which to many Conservative observers threatened their chance at power a great deal. The farm lobby was powerful, but money only went so far, especially as many returning soldiers who formerly lived on farms transferred to other, more skill-intensive industries. Urbanization of the homeworld was also beginning to rise again after the Great Exodus, and while the days of planet-blanketing cities and nature only in parks were gone for good, the farm lobby did not have the same power it once did and it would pay the price for it accordingly. To compensate, some Rural voices advocated joining with the National Front, who despite lacking good sense or popularity made up for it in energy. NF-affiliated gangs had clashed in the streets with anti-war protesters in years prior, which won them a good deal of fame. A quiet endorsement of Imperialism a few years earlier brought most remaining Minjungites on-side as well. The NF was certainly not approaching major-party status any time soon, but it was beginning to be taken seriously by political analysts.

Election Day itself was remarkable. With the endorsement of three parties and massive personal popularity, Hwang Miyoung was re-elected Consul in the first round with a simple majority. Her party did just as well. The Liberals roared ahead with a truly impressive result, taking some 42% of the Assembly. The DPP also did quite well, pulling an improvement on its previous total and taking 29%. The Socialists and Labor roughly split Old Labor's seats, taking 7 and 9 percent respectively. The Rural Party, however, was hammered, taking a mere 10%. The scope of its fall was shocking, especially when last year had gone so well for them; most of it could be chalked up to most Coalition voters choosing the Liberals over the Rurals. The NGB and the National Front split the remaining 3% between them, with the right-wing independents almost all absorbed into the National Front.

The final slap in the face to the Rural Party is that they had fallen to the point where the Liberals no longer needed them. Seeking to signal to the public that the war days were really over, and to have a more pliable junior partner than the independent Rurals, Premier Lee offered coalition to Labor instead. Park Youngha, by this point willing to do anything to remain in the halls of government, gladly accepted, further cementing his party's dependence on the Liberals. The Labor Party had fallen from second-party status to jumping whenever the Liberals said "frog", the Rurals knew that this drubbing would not - indeed, could not - be repeated but were left to lick their wounds, and the Progressives were cemented as the official opposition to the dominant Liberal Party. The next four years would be a time of prosperity and rebuilding, and Baekdu was set to return to the boom times of the "Golden Decade" that appeared as if they would fade away in the dark years of the war.

The Hwang Administration, An. XIII
Consul: Hwang Miyoung (Liberal Party)
Premier: Lee Jinwook (Liberal Party)
Minister of Foreign Affairs: Hahm Jeemin (Liberal Party)
Minister of War: Lee Jin (Liberal Party)
Minister of the Interior: Kim Hyeju (Liberal Party)
Minister of Finance: Park Youngha (Labor Party)
Minister of Commerce: Nakamura Keita (Liberal Party)
Minister of Justice: Jung Hyosung (Liberal Party)
Minister of Education & Technology: Yoon Byungse (Labor Party)
Minister of Overseas Territories: Sang Daeho (Liberal Party)
​

 

[alexander23]

EPILOGUE PART 2
Chapter 10: The Great War​

As we have read in the previous chapters, by the end of the so called golden half decade, tensions were on the rise between the Meritocrats and Syndicalist around the galaxy as their ideology opposed each other vehemently.

As we know the great war would last some eight years to ten years depending who you ask and what you consider part of the conflict, tens of billions of lives and untold amount of money and destruction around the galaxy. A lesson for all of what can happen if total war is practiced by the civilization of our time. As with all the war itself did not started in one bang, instead a series of events and conflicts boiled up to open warfare between the great powers. We too must mention that many of the conflict itself were really not one but different wars, all bundled up into one period named the Great war as nearby everyone was involved on it at some point.

It's in the belief of the authors of this informative compilation that the war can be divided on theater of operations by time period for an easier lecture and understanding of the events that would develop on it.

Western Theater: 3760-3762​

The eastern Theater is where most of the action was centered in the early years of the war before it began spreading to the rest of the galaxy.

As we learned in the previous chapters, the Sorian coalition began a war of conquest in the system of Tokgu all in the name of ending terrorism, or so they claimed. It simply was a war to unify the system under the rule of the meritocratic state of Soria, lead interestingly by the newly declared Maximum Oligarch elect of Soria (His previous title was Duke of Soria). The truth was this was the first real war waged in the Trade coalition in a long time, and most of the combating forces were made up of mercenaries, except for the oligarchy armed forces of Soria itself. After startling victories by the Sorian coalition, put the system close to surrender, weapons, advisors and “volunteers” from the Syndicalist began swelling up the ranks of the Tokgu alliance, infuriating the Oligarchy who began shipping more weapons and advisors. As the war dragged on, and by petition of the syndicalist in the PGC the system was put under blockade to stop the flow of weapons and the increase of war crimes by each side. It really though amounted as a way to block off Oligarchy material support meanwhile syndicalist continued shipping men and weapons to the Tokgu coalition whom became more and more dependent on them. The new long route that the support from the oligarchy had to take took its toll of the Sorian forces as wins were reverted and a stalemate became apparent by the end of 3761.

In Aethiks the almost destroyed terrorist organizations did a comeback with refugees fleeing from Tokgu, which took many by surprise. In response to that the Dominion “organized” all remaining states in the system into the Aethiks Confederation, signifying the official end of the Trade Coalition and with approval of the PGC. The confederation in difference from previous trade coalition gave up its independant militaries for a joint military force and command which then the dominion assumed, making them an official proxy of the PGC and the dominion. The states itself remained yet, they towed to the new confederation senate which was filled by yes man of the dominion forces. By the end of 3761 the Terrorist were declared on the brink of destruction and rebuilding efforts for a better Aethinks began..further pushing them into the dominion control.

Wide Destruction in the war of Sorian Conquest​

The real point of attention we must observe is the events in Azeratii. The civil order that had begun disrupting in the previous decade was further aggravated and began to spiral out of control by the emergence of the Lysithia Royalist defence militia, whom began to illegally attack the Syndicalist and Oligarchical political sectors and lynching became a norm against those who were considered traitors. Local authorities heavily under the monarchical side did lackluster efforts to prevent the growing militias and the vigilante “justice”. Observing the situation the federal government under the Oligarchical control, finally decided to intervene on the system as the army began to be deployed. in several locations this resulted in violent confrontations (always won by the army as the militias lacked training and weaponry..at the start) which further alienated the population of lysithia as a heavy crackdown was done on the system.

The monarchist accusing the oligarchy of attempting to destroy them in the senate organized marches and opposed all bill proposed by the oligarchical senate, however this was actual little troubles for the federal government. The real troubles was the fighting in revelaria and Atartk carvia between supporters of oligarchy and Syndicalist which had gone out of control as both sides, burned buildings of the other attacked members and had gone to lynching, in Ataturk-Carvia a massive syndicalist protest turn to halt the system, after weeks the government was forced to concede in certains items, drawing the ire of its electors and sparking an anti syndicalist protest and riots which furthermore broke order.

In revelation the Military, began preventively cracking down on syndicalist in order to avoid protest and break out of order, in heavy form which led to thousands of death. Using this the kingdom of france and the Syndicalist of Celtia began smuggling men and weapons into Azeratii, once it was detected the armed forces declared the closure of the border for the time being and localized marshall law. Accusations of an attempt to destroy the opposition was launched by the syndicalist as their representative abandoned the senate and declared the Oligarchical menace must be stopped. The first fire of conflict started as syndicalist terrorist detonated several bombs in the palace of Justice of Carvia, the first shoot of the Syndicalist revolution of Azerati, which would led to the Great War

The Syndicalist rebel forces and militias raised up in mass as much of the population was against the oligarchs and their military ways, of course the navy and army whom were mostly oligarchical supporters moved to crush it. And battles and counter rebellions began to fight across the Azeratii state. In Lysithia claiming the good of the state as a whole local government declared martial law before the federal government and began to swiftly clamp down on all syndicalist associates in an attempt to get rid of them.

As the syndicalist rebellion intensified it was clear that not even with popular support they could defeat the heavily armed azeratii armed forces on their own, as such syndicalist began smuggling men and weaponry in greater numbers to buff them up as they retreated much of their men from Tokgu, after all azeratii was a much more worthy goal than that Tokgu, giving a new influx of force to the rebellion and infuriating the Azeratii oligarchical government who declared a violation of their sovereignty and that all vessels would be checked before moving through their space. The destruction of several celtic vessels whom were clearly attempting to escape the checking was used as an excuse by them to ask the PGC the condemnation of the suppression by Azeratii and sanctions towards them. Even though the voting was defeated in the end, the Azeratii retaliated by making illegal the syndicalist party and persecuting anyone that associated with them.

Even though the Oligarchical forces were defeated at all turns the rebels, much of the population wasn't content and as more joined in, much more began civil disobedience, like not paying taxes and ignoring authorities which drove to more extreme the actions of the government to quickly crush the rebellion. By the end of 3761 the rebels publically asked for the help of their brothers and sisters of Celtia and baekdu to fight against the tyrannical regime of the Oligarchy supporters.

The Celtic revolutionary state, response was immediate, they demanded the PGC put sanctions on the Azeratii state, and declared the Syndicalist rebel government as the legitimate force in the nation. In the end they relented and a traffic to azeratti through PGC members was banned. In private the Celtic republic make clear they wanted to intervene directly, and the Baekdu should support them as nevertheless a oligarchy victory would be very bad for them, in the end was clear that if baekdu did not went along with it, celtia would cut off their friendship an alliance leaving them almost alone against the oligarchy in the future, and francia. With enough convincing a plan for a quick attack to destroy the Azeratii fleet divided between revelaria and the capital system was hatched as the syndicalist fleet began arriving to baekdu space as it was taken up in the PGC talks that intervention in Azeratii was necessary to prevent more death.

Azeratii Forces fighting the Invaders​

In the end the pgc voted in favor of it by mid 3761, an intervention to achieve a cease fire and reconciliation they called it. The Adrallan oligarchy was check mated, they could not intervene against it without risking a massive war alone, their allies in the end were too small to be real support and with Zelsar already rebuilding its forces and the Uksugan league navy detachment deployed to it, they would need to be careful as such they stayed silent for the time being and who knows what would the increasingly reclusive and aggressive francia do if they got embroiled in a full on war.

With Syndicalist-Republican strike fleet invaded Carvia a week after the vote and the first battle for Carvia started. The Azeratii fleet was big, yet not all had been reunited for the war with close to 20% still in revelaria. The PGC fleet was with this advantage bigger than the Azeratii fleet by almost 2 to 1, yet it was not an easy battle, the Azeratii knew very well their system, and had one of the most up to date naval forces. Hundreds of ships were destroyed in each side as the battle raged, however it was clear the numerical difference was winning the battle and retreat was called to Revelaria, as the armed forces entrenched itself in in the supported worlds.

At the end the strike had failed to destroy the naval assets of Azeratii whom still had close to 50% of their naval forces digging in Revelaria and had cost many ships to the joint strike fleet. The Azeratii government now relocated to more oligarchical supporting revelaria, refused the call for unilateral surrender as began orders to resists the invaders, from the traitorous PGC. Without naval support many areas rebelled against the armed forces of Azeratii in the anti Carvia segments of the systems, and PGC troops began to arrive and engage the Azeratii armed forces across the system. Yet not willing to launch an attack to remaining fleet of azeratii, as fears of an oligarchical invasion increased in the republic and more ship reinforcements were denied. The new plan was to force surrender of the capital and negotiate a truce deal.

Francia Attack Upon Myoseong​

Three months later the galaxy was taken by surprise when the Monarchical party called for an intervention of the kingdom of France to save them from the syndicalist menace. No one hour later France declared war against baekdu and the PGC. The Francia Azeratii Relief fleet arrived immediately to Lysiathia as thousands of troops were unloaded, and the Government in Lysitha declared the legitimate government of Azeratii. The second shock came as the Francia Main battlefield began its invasion of the border system of Myonseong overwhelming the small defence fleet located on it as the landing castle Louis XV impacted upon the surface of the main planet and created a landing zone for the millions of troops coming. The first time the Republic planets became battleground and cutting off the Expeditionary force from supplies and reinforcements.

The New Sorian united meritocratic state, was declared close to the invasion of francia upon baekdu, as the forces of the Sorian coalition, now free of the men and material support against them, finally defeated the remaining opposition to them.

(PART 3 TONIGHT)

 

[viola]

((It lives?
Excellent...

))

 

[Galren]

((Just a quick reminder alex, the Meritocrats want to make society more equal and based on achievement, not turn Uksugu into an oligarchy.))

 

[Plank of Wood]

 

[Scrapknight]

((damn it now i'm gonna get carpal tunnel from election ICing all over again!

just you wait, royalist scum))